Aerosol dispensers generally embody a container for a liquid "active ingredient", maintained under pressure in the container by a "propellant" and adapted to be autogeneously discharged therefrom through a manually operable valve when the latter is opened to pass an aerosol mixture of material through a tubular valve stem to a valve operating push button from which it is discharged to the atmosphere. The great majority of aerosol dispensers deliver the aerosol material to the atmosphere as long as the valve is held open and the pressure within the container is sufficient to discharge the material therefrom.
Aerosol dispensers have heretofore been constructed to deliver from the container measured quantities of the material at each operation of the actuator. Many of said prior dispensers comprise metering devices built into the container itself and usually forming an inherent portion of the valve, while others are so constituted that the metering function is carried out in the valve operating actuator. This invention is directed to the latter type and its object is to provide a more satisfactory and efficient metering actuator than those which have gone before.
An actuator of the metering type is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,989,217. The actuator of the U.S. Pat. No. 2,989,217 patent has finger-bearing and valve-opening members. The subject invention concerns an improvement in the actuator of the type shown in the above-identified patent. In particular, the subject invention concerns an improvement in the seal at several essential interfaces of the finger-bearing member and the valve opening member of the actuator.